Studying abroad is a phenomenal experience - new cultures, food, languages, sights, friends - there's nothing like it. Ask a former exchange students about their trips and you'll likely hear of the weekend adventures and hilarious stories about navigating a different country.

However, we rarely talk about what happens after returning from studying abroad, what happens when we leave the novel and exciting and come back to what was before.

I want to talk about what returning is like. It has been three months since I came back from my three month stay in London, England, and I have learned just as much away as I have learned here, in the United States.

I learned that "home" is not what it used to be and it probably never will be. While abroad, my group and I stayed in a guest house. For the first few weeks, I would say call the house by its given name, "The Highbury Centre". However, it wasn't long before "The Highbury Centre" was renamed "home", which made me think, "What is home?". Is it defined by the people, the food, comfort? It took me a very long time to reconcile this feeling of displacement. I still call the house I grow up in "home. I also call my college "home". And, I believe that a part of me will always will be home in London.

A part, not all of me. What do you do when your life is "home" in more than one place? Well, I learned that home is a collection of experiences and people and memories that are pieced together to make a life, to make a home. After spending months trying to explain how I missed and loved each place uniquely, I understood that I could be "home" even if I wasn't home.

I learned that "returning" is impossible. The idea of returning is that we go back to something that existed before, but once you live abroad for an extended period, you cannot go back - you are forever different.

I also learned that merging the new you with your old life is far more challenging than you can ever prepare for. I returned to my college campus directly following my study abroad program and was shell-shocked by the transition.

I could see that my friends were different, and I hoped that they could see that I had changed, but dissonance arouse because we weren't witnesses to each others' development. Three months doesn't seem like much, but the people I left in January were not the same as those I hugged in April. Trying to comprehend and follow how a person has matured without actually being there for the process is like putting together a puzzle blindfolded - a fumbling, frustrating struggle. Not to mention, you have to relearn the social dynamics and "norms" of your community. You change, friend groups change, trends change - when you study abroad, everything changes, and sometimes it happens without you.

I learned that though foreign travels are exhilarating, they are dangerous traps for discontentment. When I returned from a bustling city to farm country, I didn't know what to do with myself - no car, no stores, no nearby friends.

This is the most overlooked aspect of returning from studying abroad - boredom. Finding simple ways to be content and at peace with my "new, old life" was the most exhausting element of returning. Thankfully, the challenge taught me to appreciate simple beauties and experiences, but the first month back from London was a wreck of complaints, often saying, "There's nothing to do! I want to go back!".

Studying abroad, living in another country - those are only seasons in the grand scheme of life. If it was always summer, we would not find joy in building snowmen, and if we lived in perpetual winter, we would never know the warmth of summer sun. We cannot constantly search the thrill of new destinations without appreciating the little moments that brought us to those destinations.

When I left for London, I had no idea that returning would teach just as much as the curriculum.

However, since returning, I have learned that home is where the heart is because the heart is in us, and we carry the experiences that make life home inside of us and with us wherever we go.

I have learned that if we let it, everything we do can change us and paying attention to HOW it changes us is just as important. Too often we take for granted the privilege it is to watch those around us grow and become individuals.

More than anything, I learned that you do not need to be thousands of miles from your family or school to have an adventure. If I had stayed inside the entire time I was in London, there would have been no adventure. We can create experiences and adventures in any location when we decide to find them